Last week I almost wrote a post on what little importance I attach to days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That was obviously before said days. Experiencing these last year for the first time, it seems I didn’t grasp the whole extent those days have when it comes to special offers and discounts. I started into the long Thanksgiving weekend thinking that I could withstand all advertisements. Boy was I wrong.

Basically, I just couldn’t avoid the sale. It was everywhere. Posters in the street and shops, e-mails and numerous blogposts with advertisements, and of course my friends talking about it. I ended up buying a lot. But then again I only bought things I really wished for. I tell myself that I would have bought them anyways and then I would have had to pay the full price. I suppose I am pretty good in self-deceit. The result is that I definitely won’t go shopping for weeks, if not months. First I want to play with all my new toys, and it might take a long time until I find them boring and put them in a corner.

You know how much I love my television. Well, guess what, I love it even more now that I have bought an Amazon Fire TV. My Xfinity box is awesome, but now I can watch the whole Amazon Prime on my telly, too. Plus it downloads apps like Youtube or German TV ones, e.g. ZDF Mediathek. I am very much in love with this little black box and hope for a very long and cold winter so that I can fully enjoy it. And talking of Amazon – I am actually in awe of what the company, which started by selling books, comes up with nowadays – I have also bought an Echo Dot. A few weeks ago I got to know Alexa (its speech recognition) at a colleague’s house and I was enthralled. Ok, I might have been impressed easily when my colleague said “Alexa, sing happy birthday” – and the little dot did. I admit that it isn’t anything you need to survive, but it’s just amazing how a computer understands you and chooses the music you like, answers your questions, and can even order pizza or an Uber for you. I can’t wait for my Alexa to arrive (it should be in the mail today) and to try all its functions. I think I can even use it to operate my Fire TV.

The Harry Potter set is self-explaining, I guess. It had been on my wishlist for a long time, and when I got an e-mail saying that it was on sale for half the price I bought it on the spur of the moment. I really need those cold winter days …

The other toys belong to my camera. I finally brought myself to clean it thorougly before I tried my new speedlight. Actually I saw this before when I met up with my Instagram photography group and was allowed to try it. It is a great addition, esp. now that the light is bad on most days. I first used it Sunday evening to take pictures of the Boston skyline when it was dark – the results were really good. This was also when I tried the WiFi SD card for the first time. As much as I would like to have a camera with WiFi, I think my Canon 1100D is still very good. Instead I bought this SD card which connects via WiFi to my smartphone. That’s very neat and saves me a lot of money right now. Ok, it’s money I already spent on other things, but still … To be honest I bought other things too like Bath and Body Works products, clothes, etc. I’ll show you some more over the following weeks.